19. Does your child have difficulty in keeping up with fast-paced and changing activities at home, at school, and with peers? N S O A

20. Does your child always seem “one step behind”? N S O A

21. Does your child take too much time to complete simple chores? N S O A

22. Does your child become frustrated because he/she completes his/her work slowly or sees him/self as working slower than his/her peers? N S O A

23. Is your child sluggish and slow moving across most situations? N S O A

24. Does your child often need extra time to finish play activities such as drawing, building with LEGOs, or completing a puzzle? N S O A

Processing Speed Questionnaire Description

The Processing Speed Questionnaire is a face-valid set of questions that assesses different aspects of processing speed difficulties. The issue of “processing speed” is a significant concern for many struggling students. In part, this is due to the sense of frustration that many of these otherwise capable students experience in their difficulties completing work in a timely fashion. It has become a more prominent concern as some of our newer psychological instruments, such as the WISC-V and the Woodcock-Johnson-III Tests of Cognitive Abilities, have identified processing speed or cognitive efficiency as a major component of intelligence.

Adding to the confusion are the multiple methods of evaluating the components of processing speed. Varying measures assess issues of fluency, reaction time, naming speed, visual processing, auditory processing, or written processing speed.

The current scale attempts to give a broad-based assessment of written and auditory processing efficiencies and, at the same time, assesses how difficulties in these areas have an impact upon children’s performance in school, in communicating with others, and in their self-evaluation.

While this is not a standardized measure at the present time, our pilot studies indicate strong correlations with neuropsychological test measures of processing speed. We are confident that the scores you collect will help a child who experiences slow processing speed.

Scoring Procedures

N = 0 S = 1 O = 2 A = 3

The items are grouped into four separate categories/subscales:

Items 1-6 SCHOOL-BASED SCALE

Items 7-12 VERBAL PROCESSING SCALE

Items 13-18 WRITTEN PROCESSING SCALE

Items 19-24 SITUATIONAL PROCESSING SCALE

Interpretive guidelines for each scale

Scores of 0 – 5 on a scale is not suggestive of processing speed concerns in the area assessed.

Scores of 6 – 9 reflect moderate processing speed concerns, and attention should be paid to whether there are any scores that are elevated above a score of 10. Interventions can be tailored to specific deficits.

Scores of 10 and above suggest significant difficulties in the area of processing speed, and accommodations at home and school, as well as interventions to enhance processing speed, are indicated. High scores on more than one subscale suggest processing speed issues are global in nature, and both developmental and accommodation strategies will be necessary.